South Florida Protesters Stand, Fall Against War

As the U.S. military set Baghdad ablaze and deployed ground troops into Iraq, South Florida activists remained vigilant in their pursuit of peace.

Anti-war protesters held up peace signs and chanted messages that could have come straight out 1960s Berkeley.

"Hey, hey! Ho! Ho! This racist war has got to go!" shouted about 40 protesters in front of Lake Worth City Hall.

Smaller groups of demonstrators stood in front of Boca Raton City Hall and on the campus of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. In downtown Fort Lauderdale, a crowd of about 80 protesters chanted, beat drums, burned incense and held out signs condemning the U.S. government's action.

"It's not business as usual!" declared the fliers posted around the FAU campus. They urged students and faculty to walk out of class or off their jobs at noon Thursday, in protest of the war.

But when the time came, only Evan Minuskin stood up in his Sociology of Sports lecture.

"Most people here just don't care," said Minuskin, 21, a communications major from Coconut Creek. But that didn't stop him from joining about 20 others for an anti-war vigil at the edge of the campus' central park.

They stayed for a difficult hour. The heat was brutal, especially for the protesters wearing black in mourning. Gusty winds blew out their candles, even when they tried to shield them with paper cups.

"Things have changed in this nation now in ways that we won't understand until later. We've crossed the Rubicon and there's no way back," sighed Cynthia Ingham, an FAU American-history professor who has organized many campus peace rallies. She was referring to another famous military moment, thousands of years ago, when Julius Caesar refused to relinquish his command and marched his troops into Italy.

The demonstrators plan to come out again for an hour today and through next week.

Passing motorists greeted protesters throughout the region with mixed responses. Some honked in support. Others shouted support for U.S. troops. A few made obscene gestures.

"You guys are idiots!" said a truck driver passing protesters in front of Boca Raton City Hall.

"God, people are rude," Marina Haake said as she gripped her sign that read "We [Heart] Our Troops" in red marker.

Haake, 23, made her way to stand with some friends among the more than 20 college students gathered on the corner of Palmetto Park Road and Northwest Second Avenue.

They gathered around the afternoon rush-hour Thursday to protest for peace, though some of the reactions they got from passers-by was far from peaceful.

"Get a life!" shouted a driver in a maroon pick-up truck.

One woman hissed out of her car window before driving away: "You should be ashamed of yourselves."

"As long as they don't throw stuff, it's all right," said protester Teisha Huggins, a Lynn University junior.

In Lake Worth, protesters used shock value to get their message across. They chanted vitriolic words about President Bush. Eight activists participated in a "die-in" where they dripped themselves in fake red blood and pretended to be dead.

On Dixie Highway in Lake Worth, Carlos Marente was sitting the passenger seat of white Ford pickup, a giant American flag in one hand and a sign reading, "Support Our Troops. USA" in another.

"Why don't you enlist then?" the protesters yelled.

"I would, but I'm only 16," he responded.

"That's an awfully early age to want to kill," Carolyn Gray responded.

Gray wore a T-shirt featuring a picture of an Iraqi child with the message, "If you kill Saddam, you'll have to kill me first."

"Too many people think it's OK to kill people. I want to put a face on it," she said. "This is an unlawful, immoral, unnecessary, unilateral, unprovoked, despicable act, and I'm ashamed of my government."

Staff writer Robert Nolin contributed to this story.

Scott Travis can be reached at stravis@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6637.